Otti sues Abia commissioner, online publication for defamation

A former gubernatorial candidate in Abia State, Dr Alex Otti, has sued the Abia State Commissioner for Information, Eze Chikamnayo, for defamation of character.

Otti is asking the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, to compel Chikamnayo to pay him the sum of N50 billion in addition to retracting and apologising to him for damaging his reputation, following an offensive publication titled, “Enough of Otti’s Nonsense”, published in Abia Pulse News Online, on November 17, 2021.

Also joined in the suit, filed by Seasons Law Firm, Abuja, according to a statement issued Thursday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ferdinand Ekeoma, is the publisher of the online publication, Ugochukwu Nwankwo.

Otti, a renowned economist, said the publication which poured invectives on his person is not only false in its entirety, but also malicious as it intended to malign, ridicule and reduce his estimation in the minds of right-thinking members of the public.

He said he has worked assiduously all his life to reach the eminent status which he has attained nationally and globally, and, is asking the Court for a retraction of the publication and an apology by the Defendants, in addition to exemplary damages, to mitigate the damage done to his reputation by the said publication.

Specifically, he is asking the court for:

1. An Order of the Honourable Court compelling the Defendants to publish an apology to the Claimant in a full page of The Guardian Newspaper and ThisDay Newspaper retracting the defamatory statements contained in the article titled “Enough of Otti’s Nonsense”.
2. An Order of the Honourable Court compelling the Defendants to publish an apology to the Claimant on the Abia Pulse News Online website – www.abiapulse.com – retracting the defamatory statements contained in the article titled “Enough of Otti’s Nonsense” and accord the apology the same level of prominence as the article titled “Enough of Otti’s Nonsense”.
3. An Order of the Court compelling the Defendants jointly and severally to pay general damages of N50,000,000,000 for damage done to the reputation of the Claimant by the publication of the false, malicious and defamatory statements contained in the article titled “Enough of Otti’s Nonsense”.

READ: Otti begs Ikpeazu to stop decay of Abia assets, pay workers, pensioners

Otti, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State, respected for his forceful and constructive criticism of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, is an accomplished banker, who got to the pinnacle of his profession when he became the GMD/CEO of the defunct Diamond Bank, after serving for two tenors as an Executive Director in First Bank.

He is a respected first-class economist, renowned writer and a leading political figure and opposition voice in Abia,

He was once appointed Chairman Committee of Bank CEOs in Nigeria by the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Nigeria. He also Chaired Banker’s Committee Economic Development, Sustainability & Gender Subcommittee for two years.

He set an unprecedented record as the GMD/CEO of Diamond, and had a sterling performance that made the CBN list the bank as one of the eight Systemically Important Banks (SIBs) in Nigeria.

Before Otti took over as GMD/CEO of the bank in 2011, the bank had posted a loss of N11.214b in 2010 and another loss after tax of N13.940b in 2011.

However, after Otti took over in 2011 and in his first full year of 2012 the bank posted a profit after tax of N22.108b, N32.5b in 2013 and N28.36 when he handed over in 2014. The bank also saw its total assets rise from N564.9b in February 2011 to N1.18 trillion by December 31, 2012 and N1.52 trillion in 2013.

Otti doubled the full staff count from around 2,000 to over 4,000 in 2014. He expanded the bank’s branch network from 210 branches in 2011 to over 265 branches three years later. Under his watch also, the bank established an international subsidiary in the United Kingdom, in addition to expansion in Francophone West Africa (Senegal, Togo, and Ivory Coast).